 "Pune Porsche crash: How 17-year-old’s family ‘bribed’ doctors, reached out to politicians to cover-up case")
Nearly 10 days after the Porsche crash took place in Kalyani Nagar area of Pune in Maharashtra, killing two people, new twists have emerged in the case — of evidence tampering and attempts of hushing up the matter.
The doctors at Pune’s Sassoon General Hospital, who had collected the teen accused’s blood sample after the crash, which killed two people, have been arrested for destroying evidence and send to police custody until 30 May. There are also claims being made that a Rs 3 lakh bribe was made to the doctors at the government-run hospital to replace the blood sample.
Furthermore, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and one MLA and one state minister from his NCP faction are under fire over allegations that they allegedly tried to interfere in the police case against the teen after he ran over two 24-year-old techies in the wee hours of 19 May.
Is it a case of crash and cover-up? What’s going on? Here’s all that we know.
Blood matters
On Monday, the Pune Police, who is investigating the case of the 17-year-old being allegedly drunk and then running over two people on 19 May, has alleged that there has been a blatant attempt at a cover-up by the family of the teenager accused in the case.
Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar said they have arrested Dr Ajay Taware, head of the Sassoon General Hospital’s Forensic Medicine department and Dr Shrihari Halnor, the chief medical officer of the state-run hospital, along with one more staff member of the hospital for allegedly trying to discard and replace the blood sample of the accused with another, on the allurement from the accused’s family.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAccording to the police, Dr Harnol collected the minor’s blood samples — the police claim that the 17-year-old was intoxicated at the time of the crash — and then threw them in a dustbin at Sassoon Hospital. Then along with Dr Taware, a blood sample of another person was taken and sent to the forensic lab with the minor’s name on it.
According to reports, which cite sources, the doctors discarded the blood sample and tried to replace it after receiving a call from the teen accused’s father and a promise of a Rs 3 lakh bribe. As per an NDTV report, Dr Taware and the teen accused’s father spoke over the phone on the day of the accident. “The juvenile’s father had called the doctor and offered him allurements to replace the blood samples,” police told the media outlet.
The police explained that owing to the sensitivity of the case, they had taken one more sample of the accused and sent it to another hospital. “The report of the other hospital revealed the juvenile’s blood report at the Sassoon Hospital was manipulated as the DNA of (blood samples of) both the reports did not match,” he said. Both the doctors did not have any idea that the police would take one more sample (of the accused juvenile), said Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar.
Both the doctors have now been arrested and charged under sections 120 b (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery), 201 (destruction of evidence), 213 (taking gift or something else to screen an offender from punishment), and 214 (offering gift or restoration of property to screen an offender) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Moreover, the Maharashtra Medical Council has also issued a notice to the doctors, giving them seven days to respond. News18 reports that if the Maharashtra Medical Council finds the two doctors guilty, the council could suspend their medical licences from one day to a lifetime.
Prior to the two doctors being arrested, two police officials have also been suspended on 24 May for delayed reporting of the Porsche car crash and dereliction of duty.
The driver angle
Prior to the minor accused’s blood sample being discarded, there have been attempts of a cover-up in the case, with the family alleging that it wasn’t the teen but the driver who was driving the car at the time of the crash.
Last Friday, the police said that there was some attempt by the minor’s father to show that the driver of the Porsche car was not his son, but an adult driver. The commissioner said the driver (adult) had initially said he was driving the Porsche car. “Probe is on and it will be known under whose pressure he made such a statement. Statement of this driver is important,” said Kumar.
“We have checked records at the security cabin of the minor’s residence, which shows he had taken the car while leaving the house. We have seized the CCTV videos from the minor’s house. Also, the statements of the eye-witnesses corroborate this technical evidence,” he added.
In fact, on Saturday (25 May), the cops arrested the teen’s grandfather, Surendra Agarwal, for allegedly putting pressure on the driver to take the blame for the accident. A News18 report citing sources said that Surendra and Vishal, the accused’s father, had allegedly kidnapped the driver and held him. “They put pressure on him to accept the responsibility of the accident by offering him a bungalow,” a source was quoted as saying.
The grandfather has also been remanded to police custody until 28 May.
**Also read: Pray, language lessons, outdoor games: What Pune Porsche crash accused teen will do at remand home**Political interference
Besides claims of the teen accused’s family trying to cover-up his involvement in the crime, there’s also reports emerging that leaders from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction also attempted at putting pressure to make the authorities go soft on the juvenile.
As per a report in the Economic Times, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar allegedly made a call to the Pune Police commissioner to go “soft” on the minor son. Earlier, social activist Anjali Damania had made the same claim.
When confronted with this allegation, Pawar denied applying any pressure on the investigating authorities and said: “If any such incident happens and if you are the guardian minister, then one would call up the police commissioner. So, I told him (Pune Police commissioner) to not succumb to any pressure as a rich person’s family was involved. There was a possibility of different kinds of pressure on police.”
Earlier, questions were also raised as to why an MLA from Pawar’s NCP faction, Sunil Tingre, had shown up at the Yerawada police station after the minor’s arrest on 19 May. There were allegations that he had gone there to put pressure on the police to go soft on the juvenile. However, Tingre has stated that he went to the station to ensure that the authorities carry out their investigation without any pressure.
Family’s clout
The attempts at trying to cover-up the crime has put a spotlight on the juvenile’s family. The father, Vishal Agarwal, who has been arrested, is a renowned realtor in Pune.
There are also claims that the minor’s grandfather, allegedly made payments to don Chhota Rajan in a shootout case.
Another prominent builder from Pune also told The Print that the family was “high on money”.
The case has got many asking: Does the rich get away with crime?
With inputs from agencies
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